Hi Christine, Yes, word of mouth is the best form of marketing. It saves marketing dollars and encourages interested students to enroll. Word of mouth is not as easy as it seems. This implies that the school has great "customer" service and has many strategies in place to ensure that the student is successful. It does take keeping in touch with grads, alumni, and the community and maintaining a great image. It takes everyone on staff to work effectively to ensure word of mouth referrals. Thanks, Susan
Word of mouth is the way to go. Our best quality of students is by other students who have taken the course. Another good way to market is make sure you get email addresses as well as home address.
Hi Christopher.
Yes,time is a challenge. If you can find the time upfront to put a plan together it might be able to be implemented by a part time administrator. The trick is finding the time to set it up right and test the plan and figure out ways to evaluate it ongoing and when to check in with the admin to see how s/he is doing. Nothing takes 5 minutes.
Good luck, Susan
hi, you're right we are a little scatter gunned and its something I have been thinking about trying to pull together more cohesively, time is the main enemy! We're revamping our marketing and advertising budgets and one of the items to do is get a good marketing/PR person in who can pull these pieces together. Not that they have to do it all as there are good PR companies you can outsource to as well which I think might be the best bet early on. When you're small and growing its a juggle.
Hi Christopher,
Your response provides many opportunities for continued thought and public relations plannng. You certainly participate in a lot of community events and have given other viewers many ideas for all that is possible. You are right that you have great exposure. You probably need a bit more control over it. For one thing do you let the press know about the events and do they take any photos and place in their papers? What about the PR department of each organization? They should be able to do something in terms of getting the word out before and after. Do you let your total constituency know about the events - students, staff, grads, alumni, employers and more? Do you take photos and post them to your website or use as a marketing tool or emailing? Or post on your bulletin boards or provide the info to your admissions reps? Yes, it's true that some publicity isn't always good. Building and maintaining relationships with people at the press help to prevent bad press or help you see it coming. Thanks for the rich information, Susan
Hi, our school uses a variety of approaches including Red Cross Blood Donations, Charity Walks at Disneyland, participation in local community events, sponsoring local baseball teams, providing school hosted job fairs and being members of various professional associations to which various faculty attend. This holistic approach tends to help grow the network of people who know about the schools. We don't know who will see what and when so having multiple avenues to touch someone allows them to see us in various different lights and therefore reinforce their memory of us. It can work against us as well sometimes when there is poor publicity such as when a newspaper article is written about the industry or it mentions us but it seems the other good areas outweigh these poor ones
Hi Judiann
It is true that there is just so much time and talent available in a small school. That's why it is important to take the time to set up a placement department that can be run with the help of administrative staff. It does take that upfront time, however. Which I'm sure is hard to find. But once you start putting placement strategies in place and see the impact throughout your school, you will see the value and allocate more time.
Good luck, Susan
having a small school and limited staff finding the appropriate time for an open house or even going to chamber of commerce gathering is difficult
Hi Steve, Looks like you gave us your PR strategy and how to improve it! Thanks. Basically you have created an extern experience so your students can practice their skills. You're also teaching them how to be alert for business if they work on their own. As to timing and geographical issues - it will be interesting to find solutions. Location shouldn't be a big problem. You can work on cases long distance through the internet. Maybe you'll miss some clues by not being there. But there may be ways to compensate for that. You made another important point - figure out every opportunity to gain publicity! Thanks
Hi Pete
You've made some good points that are useful for all schools. It is very important to join community organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce. It's so easy to host a meeting at your school and let them know how you serve the community. Advertise in their newsletters and ask your information to be emailed to other members. The other point you made is that apparently you measured results from bus ads. It is critical to measure and evaluate all marketing strategies to figure out the best. Thanks, Susan
Steve - What a wonderful story all around! We all don't have as clear and dramatic stories, but our thought is that every student has a great story. We just have to ask them the right questions. That's a good exercise - to have student services or placement create a series of questions to get the human story side of the student. Then create case studies or success stories and use them in admissions, placement, publicity, and more. Thanks, Susan
I'm very lucky to be in the field of training and educating professional investigators. I have had many enormous examples of how our students used their skills and received huge amounts of publicity in the local community.
This example was a student (age 42) who had been a local firefighter and was hurt on the job and wanted to switch fields to professional investigation. He knew nothing about his biological parents or even if they were still alive because he had been left at an orphanage in Oklahoma shortly after birth.
One of the courses that each student takes as a part of the program is "skip tracing." This teaches the student how to use public records to find individuals. This particular student was so ecited that he bagan attempts to locate his biological family.
After nearly a month of online research, the student found public records in Enid, Oklahoma, which led him to making a phone call. That phone call changed his life. He actually spoke to one of his 3 brothers that he didn't know existed. After multiple phone calls, he flew out to Oklahoma City where he was met by his mother and 3 brothers.
This story was related in the Fort Lauderdale newspaper, which caused an incredible surge in our enrollment. Many people had the same issues and wanted to learn how to track down relatives.
We found that "human interest" stories like this one work incredibly well for us and we have since incorporated those stories in our publicity campaign. Local newspapers now call us for stories like this one. they don't wait for us to call them.
The story has a happy ending....my student gaduated and moved to Oklahoma to be with his family. He is currently an investigator with a law firm.
As a Professional Investigator School, we try to encourage our students to participate in activities that not only relate to their training but also get our school noticed through the use of local media.
For example, if there is a missing child or person locally we volunteer assistance with field searches and related investigation. In return, we try to get our school recognized through the media that is broadcasting the story. We find that this is not only educational to our students but gives our school recognition by local organizations, media, possible employers and prospective students.
The above works very well; however, these opportunites are limited and sometimes presents timing and geographical challenges.
There are not any significant changes that need to be made with this form of public relations; however, we need to make every effort to notify the local media outlets that we are participating in these activities as a school to better the chance for publicity.
We are members of the Margate Chamber of Commerce and we have sponsored a breakfast at our fracility to introduce the community to our school. It gave us an opportunity to explain what we do and how we serve the public. It was interesting to learn how many of the general public thinks Private Investigators carry guns and only investigate marrital issues. Most people left with a better understanding of how much our industry can save the community with insurance fraud investigations.
What did not work is our advertising efforts on county busses. We got very little for those advertising dollars.
Hi Melanie, Very good points. The goal in marketing is to constantly evaluate how things are working. How many inquiries come through TV, for example and how qualified are they? You could get a lot of leads but enroll no one. The most important start is to determine who your ideal market is. Then you are figure how how to reach them. And of course to reach them as much as possible through publicity and public relations efforts.
Thanks, Susan
We also rely on word of mouth. But, we also are using billboards, tv & radio commercials, & a website. These all are expensive & require a marketing budget. I would say that we receive the most inquiries through tv. However, I think the website is also a good idea because everyone searches for things on the web.
Good luck with your marketing, Javier.
I have just started the public relations program and have finished a few of the modules. I do not know what workbook you are talking about, Susan. Please advise.
Hi Aram
Our theory is that it takes time to put an effective and comprehensive public relations campaign in place. But once done then any one on staff can do it. It can be handled by the receptionist. The key is to spend the time and money up front. The workbook provided already has all the details and how-to's. It just takes a few people to customize it to your school. The secret to success is spend the time to do it once and do it right. Create all the systems, procedures, forms, etc. Then you can hire a temp to handle if need be. Thanks, Susan
It feels good to know I am not alone. What I have noticed over the years is that the velocity of public relations has changed. It appears to be in a permanent state of acceleration. I agree with you, Dr. Schulz, that public relations is not costly; however, when you consider the people power it takes to put together an effective campaign then one come to the realization that if you are a small college, you are in for a long run with "bad shoes on."
Anhow, hope everyone's Holidays are healthy and joyous.
Hi Aram
You've described the dilemma of many school directors. You know that publicty will get you a lot of results but don't have time to put a formal plan in place. The reality is that once you have a plan then each activity can be run by someone on your staff. Publicity and public relations is relatively easy and costs very little. It is about community outreach and using every means possible to let everyone know that your school is an educational resource for everyone. Best wishes, Susan
